The Brewmaster Tanking Guide [5.4]

[The Madgod]

Which would be better, 504 staff with 500 agi gem or 502+498 1h weapons?

Higher ilvl plus a very powerful gem versus dual wielding.

Staff wins by far. Remember that dual wielding isn't a holy standard; it shouldn't really be a significant part of your decision making unless you've got two very close weapon choices (I.E. same ilvl, roughly the same stats).

[Zonex]

\o/

no more acterius or w/e it was

cant believe you swayed from it in the first place >.<

[Vasilisa]

A question for american players that've raided yesterday/today - do you have any brewmaster specific tips for Soo (like say first 6 bosses)?

[Promdates]

A question for american players that've raided yesterday/today - do you have any brewmaster specific tips for Soo (like say first 6 bosses)?

There isn't anything specific for the first 6 on normals. Take Xuen on everything but Galakras. You can use Glyph of Guard for Iron Juggernaut to help soak one of the ignite flames (we taunted every 3), take Diffuse Magic for Juggernaut too. I was on He Surefoot on Protectors, there isn't anything major about that fight. Charging ox was helpful on Immerseus, also the healing adds can be healed by your healing sphere's.

[Artaius]

There isn't anything specific for the first 6 on normals. Take Xuen on everything but Galakras. You can use Glyph of Guard for Iron Juggernaut to help soak one of the ignite flames (we taunted every 3), take Diffuse Magic for Juggernaut too. I was on He Surefoot on Protectors, there isn't anything major about that fight. Charging ox was helpful on Immerseus, also the healing adds can be healed by your healing sphere's.

I used Ring of Peace on Galakras as well, and I personally chose to use Healing Elixirs just cause I found myself not using Diffuse or Dampen.

Also, does anyone know if Haromm's Talisman/Sigil of Rampage are going to have a lower proc rate for Brewmaster? If it does, what will you guys be using for BiS?

[Orion Antares]

There isn't anything specific for the first 6 on normals. Take Xuen on everything but Galakras. You can use Glyph of Guard for Iron Juggernaut to help soak one of the ignite flames (we taunted every 3), take Diffuse Magic for Juggernaut too. I was on He Surefoot on Protectors, there isn't anything major about that fight. Charging ox was helpful on Immerseus, also the healing adds can be healed by your healing sphere's.

I preferred RJW on Protectors. Immersius is more optimal with Chi Torpedo but he's a loot bag either way so it doesn't really matter.

[Promdates]

I used Ring of Peace on Galakras

Ooooh, I didn't even think of that. I just used Leg Sweep cause I often forget to change out talents between fights.

@Orion Antares: What'd you use RJW on Protectors for? Were you tanking all 3?

[SurrealNight]

I tried Chi Burst on Norushon + Pride and would see some crazy #'s on the screen firing it into the raid after the little adds spawned but didn't get any logs to see how it compares to other choices =/ Firing off the hadoken blast was more fun than the standard Chi Wave spam though.

Switching up to DPS leg + Crit RoRo for tonight until I find a boss with some teeth to it. H T15 gear makes the first half seem lol so far.

[lairpie]

A question for american players that've raided yesterday/today - do you have any brewmaster specific tips for Soo (like say first 6 bosses)?

There are a lot of boss specific tips and discussion in this thread:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...s#post22365637
or the much easier to process website displaying the same data as the first post:
http://www.wendigobrewing.com/tip/

It's monk specific (though the setup is actually there to work for any class, the others are just disabled), has tips for all 3 specs, but you can use the filters box to hide things that don't apply to BrM. There's so much overlap in what a tank should ideally be doing with what a dps or healer should be, when all 3 specs have powerful damage reduction, damage dealing, and healing capabilities, that it seemed best to have a lot of the discussion of specific tips merged. Just as an example, all three specs should be using the hell out of healing spheres for the adds on immerseus, using cow or ls to stun them, using chi burst to heal and dps a whole chunk of both types of adds. Stuff like that.

Immersius is more optimal with Chi Torpedo but he's a loot bag either way so it doesn't really matter.

Well, it will likely matter next week.
Logs said chi torpedo didn't heal adds and positioning would make it hard to get too much use out of it healing players or damaging adds. Maybe if your raid grouped a bit differently than ours did. we sort of accidentally pulled the boss before we explained anything and 1 shot it so our positioning was kind of interesting.

[Eijy]

Im thinking in using the new jade spinning blablabla tallent in sha of pride, considering its just a push of a button and i can still do stuff

which one you guys think its better? this or Xuen? Considering im gonna use it to burn the adds of reflection

[Vasilisa]

If I calculate correct my new fiist 561 + normal fist 530 would be slightly better then hc tortos staff 543?

[Eijy]

I think so Vasi, cant confirm it though D=

[kaiadam]

Im thinking in using the new jade spinning blablabla tallent in sha of pride, considering its just a push of a button and i can still do stuff

which one you guys think its better? this or Xuen? Considering im gonna use it to burn the adds of reflection

Doubt it. Reflection adds die in 3 seconds, spinning crane kick > RJW in those 3 seconds. Keep Xuen for Sha.

If I calculate correct my new fiist 561 + normal fist 530 would be slightly better then hc tortos staff 543?

A bit more than slightly. People say to average dual wield weapon ilvls to compare it to a 2h - I keep wondering why? the MH is weighted twice as heavy as the offhand in all of our abilities. So it'd be roughly 561+530 DW ~= 554 2H.

[lairpie]

A bit more than slightly. People say to average dual wield weapon ilvls to compare it to a 2h - I keep wondering why? the MH is weighted twice as heavy as the offhand. So it'd be roughly 561+530 DW ~= 554 2H.

The damage on the MH is weighted twice as high, but not the stats which are valued equally between the mh and offhand. Weapon damage goes into stuff like expel harm heal size, statue guard frequency, gotox, not just the raid dps contribution. So comparing the value to get a lump ilvl of 2 1hers, you'd weight the mh a bit more heavily, but not double. Also though, 2 1hers that are only slightly (estimates range as we don't ahve a real simcraft or anything to do the math here, but somewhere around the 5 item levels) lower than 1 2her are better unless there's a lot of magic damage that you can't just cd through.

If you're looking purely at damage output and ignoring the stats, it would be a 67/33 ratio. Taking into account the stats for damage probably bumps it a few points, and looking at the stats for purely defensive considerations bumps it a few more points. In the interest of responding to the seemingly 5 daily questions about 1h vs 2h weapons, I think it would probably be worth all agreeing on a formula, despite the fact that it will have some completely arbitrary coefficient for the value of damage vs living and there's only so accurate you can really get a formula like this without an amount of math that just isn't going to happen.

something like:
(2Hilvl - 5) > or < (MHilvl * .6) + (OHilvl * .4)
if it's a tie, go with whatever has less haste.

I think any vaguely reasonable numbers in place of that 5, .6, and .4 would be better than rehashing the same discussion over and over again with varying degrees of accuracy. Some people would put a 2her anywhere between 0 and 10 ilvls worse than 2 1hers. I think we'd get MH/OH balance arguments for anywhere between 67/33 and 50/50, and I'd certainly be willing to push those numbers a bit in any direction people feel strongly about. We could add in something for what stats the items have but then it would matter what stats you already have (for instance if you're at 1k haste a weapon having haste isn't as much of a bad thing as if you have 10k), what raid mode you're doing, and all sorts of stuff. I could maybe see something like:

(2Hilvl - 5 unless it's a magic heavy fight) > or < (MHilvl * .6) + (OHilvl * .4)

Until there's a functional brm simcraft that actually calculates chance to die and healing needed numbers, not just damage done numbers, a very simple formula that we can all say is good enough, despite not being perfect, will do more good than harm.

[Drodoo]

I gotta say, I love the new RJW, the ability to still generate EB stacks is just too good. \o/

[lairpie]

I gotta say, I love the new RJW, the ability to still generate EB stacks is just too good. \o/

Yeah, if you're going to be aoeing for a significant portion of the fight, RJW is almost always going to be the best for tanking. Also great for picking mobs up as they enter because the only time you wouldn't have it up much would be if it expires right as keg smash comes off cd, in which case you should still be fine picking those mobs up. I won't be surprised if they do something to alter RJW again though as it seems pretty terrible for MW, and WWs are divided. Buffing the ability and lowering the AP scaling wouldn't surprise me.

[Deleted]

Anyone has done bis gear list?

[lairpie]

Anyone has done bis gear list?

Yes, cryptically entitled:
BRM 5.4 BIS List
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...M-5-4-BiS-list

Also some discussion here:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...at-weights-5-4

But really, the answer is that our stat weights for hit, crit, mastery, and exp are nearly identical with reforging as long as you don't blow so far past hit and exp cap you can't get under them, and haste isn't 'that' bad so basically you just want the highest item level gear you can get. There's a bunch of discussion there on trinkets which are a mess.

[Deleted]

Thank u man. Tonight i was full mastery on the first 6 boss but i dont see the point atm.

[The Madgod]

\o/

no more acterius or w/e it was

cant believe you swayed from it in the first place >.<

ACNOCTUS.

And I'm still using it. Just not for the forums / youtube / general stuffness.

Maybe. Might use it as a moniker if I ever go into music.